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Forum:Which characters go into game/expansion templates?
Is there any reason for not including Nova in the StarCraft 2 Wings of Liberty Characters section, along with 'Others' characters Mengsks, Lockwell, and Warfield? --Purewasted 06:54, October 30, 2009 (UTC) Well, the underlying question is, what is the criteria a character has to pass to be considered eligible for "Campaign Character" status? Let's pretend that we have the game in our hands, we know exactly how much screentime each character has, everything. Must they have a speaking line, as opposed to appearing for 5 seconds in a cinematic next to a speaking character? If Nova's 'cameo' turns out to be no more than her appearing in an in-game rendered cinematic to call down a Nuke on something (highly unlikely based on Metzen's hype), the mission page will still have to note her presence, won't it? And once her presence is noted there, she's a character in the campaign, isn't she? Then, of course, that raises the question of the eligibility one-shot characters. IE, a local Marine 'hero' the player controls in Outbreak, and doesn't see afterwards. Obviously that wouldn't warrant a mention on the campaign page... so it's far from clear-cut. Is the defining factor then whether the player can interact with the character in the RPG setting? Then it's very likely Arcturus, Valerian, Warfield, and Kerrigan will all fail to qualify. Lostpedia, for Lost, offers one way: listing every single character, no matter how brief (or dialogue-less) their appearance... though they would make a note of the brevity. WoWwiki offers another: listing only those that appear within missions themselves. Curiously, King Terenas, who appears in both the opening and closing cinematic and is referenced many times in the dialogue, would get no mention; while notably insignificant, one-shot enemy Heroes that appear in missions WOULD. (for reference: http://www.wowwiki.com/Path_of_the_Damned all six of the "Other Major Characters" are as far from major as you can imagine; http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Season_5 lists every single character, even appearing only in archived footage, and lets the users sort for themselves) Do we have this criteria figured out? My personal preference is to go with the safer route and over-include, as opposed to being strict and under-including. But anyway, just wanted to bring that up. --Purewasted 02:09, November 1, 2009 (UTC) :We're dealing with two issues here. :1) The game isn't out, so there's incomplete information. We don't know how big a role Nova should play. Unless we're including every character in Wings of Liberty in the template, then maybe Nova shouldn't be there. :a) And because wikis are vulnerable to accusations of not being completely accurate I'm a bit reluctant/conservative on that topic... although, for obvious reasons you don't have to reference the templates. (Anyone can follow the link to Nova.) :2) Just how "major" much a character be to make it into the template? At present, Nova did make it into template: Heroes, but that's not game-based (otherwise a minor game character like Ulrezaj wouldn't make it, not when Alan Schezar, who got twice the screentime, didn't make it either). :Of course, maybe we should discuss the heroes template too. PSH aka Kimera 757 (talk) 02:21, November 1, 2009 (UTC) :Please note that game characters do have a category to themselves; see Category:Terran_characters_in_StarCraft_II. Nova is in that category. PSH aka Kimera 757 (talk) 02:23, November 1, 2009 (UTC) :On Path of the Damned... wow, that is odd. I don't think those "major" characters are, in fact, "major". I think they should rename that section "Other Heroes" instead. PSH aka Kimera 757 (talk) 02:27, November 1, 2009 (UTC) :For the WoL template, it seems we might need additional character rows. There's RR, which is good. "Other characters" would be for recurring characters (Lockwell) or those that play a major plot role (so Arcturus, but maybe not Valerian, but maybe Kerrigan, etc.). Then a new row "Appearances" for major/notable SC characters who may have five minutes of fame or something (maybe Nova, maybe Warfield.) - Meco (talk, ) 02:43, November 1, 2009 (UTC) ::Where would we put characters like Warfield that we're not really sure about by default? (And for the record, Valerian will have a bigger role in StarCraft II than his father.) PSH aka Kimera 757 (talk) 02:55, November 1, 2009 (UTC) :::I vote characters in Warfield's position (merely mentioned in passing) should be left off. - Meco (talk, ) 03:04, November 1, 2009 (UTC) ::::That seems a little much, given that Warfield was specifically pointed out. (It won't mean much until the game comes out though.) PSH aka Kimera 757 (talk) 03:10, November 1, 2009 (UTC) ::::I'm thinking of situations like, say, if Zeratul mentions Selendis in passing ("protoss forces you might meet on the way are under her command" or something), but Selendis otherwise doesn't show up in the foreground. I'd be hesitant to add Selendis to the template. I'm hoping Warfield will get multiple mentions along the way to justify putting him in the "minor" character area, but right now we don't know that. - Meco (talk, ) 04:56, November 1, 2009 (UTC) ::The Path of the Damned example is something of a horror story, I think, when the letter of the law has more weight than the spirit of the law... common sense is completely overruled by adherence to arbitrary lines in the sand. It makes no sense to me to not include a character like King Terenas, who plays a central role in both the opening and closing cinematics of the Human campaign (the cinematics are found inside this campaign, not separately outside somewhere) simply because he doesn't appear, directly, in any of the missions. What is the difference between the Wings of Liberty template and the Terran SC2 characters Category? ::Is there a "SC2 characters" Category for Terran+ Zeratul, Artanis, Kerrigan? Can Zeratul and/or Kerrigan be added to the Wings template? Zeratul's mini-campaign may actually be completely separate, but Kerrigan's appearance in Wings is beyond doubt, I imagine. ::That's to say, does every character that is Terran and fits under Wings belong also under SC2 Terran Category? And does every character in SC2 Terran Category who appears in Wings deserve to be in the Wings template? I'm trying to get at the intended distinction between the two. --Purewasted 04:28, November 1, 2009 (UTC) :::I believe the SC2 terran character category is for characters appearing in at least one of WoL, HotS, or LotV. Similar logic applies to the SC2 zerg and protoss categories (I don't think they have been created yet). :::Kerrigan and Zeratul would merit at least a "minor" inclusion in the WoL template. Kerrigan might be "major" if you factor in her hand in driving events. - Meco (talk, ) 04:56, November 1, 2009 (UTC) ::::OK, so it seems that the Category is all inclusive (even minor named characters), whereas the expansion templates are not so easy to get on. I guess some sort of criteria will probably develop as the games come out and we see convenient ways to clump characters together, like Kim said... As for Kerrigan and Zeratul, I definitely agree that both deserve mentions, because both have been seen in the campaign itself (Zeratul "I bring tidings" and Kerrigan on the news). We know that both VAs got plenty of work recording new dialogue for Wings, so they're certainly going to have more than JUST an indirect effect on the game. --Purewasted 05:06, November 1, 2009 (UTC) :::: I added Kerrigan and Zeratul to the WoL template as they have been confirmed. PSH aka Kimera 757 (talk) 13:58, November 1, 2009 (UTC)